Opening session

Over 1000 attendees have gathered and are now waiting for the AAAS 2019’s opening session to begin.

The very crowded ballroom where the opening session is about to start.

Welcome, prizes and speeches

The Philip Hague Abelson Prize for 2019 was given to Cato T. Laurencin.

Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, spoke diplomatically about the importance of symbiotic cooperation between industrial and scientific partners, a much needed force to counter the current diverging forces.

Margaret A. Hamburg, AAAS President, was more direct to the point and contrasted J. F. Kennedy’s interest in promoting scientific development for the good of mankind with the current adminstration’s troubling uninterest for evidence-based decisions, ignorance of scientific facts and dangerous spreading of misconceptions that endanger people’s lives.